Isaac Dabbs

Isaac Dabbs was an American politician who served on the Virginia House of Delegates from 1875 to 1877.[1]

Isaac Dabbs
BornCa. late 1840s
Charlotte County, Virginia
NationalityAmerican
OccupationPolitician, brickyard laborer
Years active1875 - 1877
Political partyRepublican
Spouse(s)Sarah Ann Brown (1869 - 1884)
Sarah Catherine Howell (1898, until his death)
Children2, with Sarah Ann

Biography

Dabbs was born into slavery on a plantation in Charlotte County, Virginia. As slave births were not frequently recorded there is no exact date for his birth but he was likely born in the late 1840s.[2] He was freed at some undetermined point in time and on December 29, 1869 he married Sarah Ann Brown, with whom he had at least two sons. Dabbs was illiterate for most of his life, a fact that had been reported upon in literature about his political career,[3] but it is believed that he learned to read and write by 1900 according to census reports.[2] After his wife Sarah died in 1884 Dabbs would later remarry in 1898, a marriage that produced no children. Dabbs moved to Baltimore two years later, where he was recorded in his ward's census on April 27, 1910. He is believed to have died shortly after this point as he was not in the following census.[2]

Political career

Dabbs ran as part of the Radical Republicans and was their candidate for the House of Delegates for 1875. While Dabbs won the popular vote and served as the Charlotte County Delegate for two years, he was ultimately not chosen as the Radical Republicans' candidate for the following election.[2] He continued to serve as a faithful party member and acted as a canvasser for the party's candidate for the 1883 elections for the House of Delegates.

Further reading
  • Jackson, Luther Porter. Negro Office-Holders in Virginia, 1865–1895. Norfolk, Virginia: Guide Quality Press, 1945.
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References
  1. Dabbs, Jack Autrey (1987). Dabbs family genealogy, U.S. p. 99. Retrieved 17 June 2015.
  2. Deal, John G. "Isaac Dabbs (ca. 1848–after 1910)". Encyclopedia Virginia/Dictionary of Virginia Biography. Retrieved 17 June 2015.
  3. Cabell Bruce, William (1918). Below the James: A Plantation Sketch. Neale Publishing Company. pp. 149–150. Retrieved 18 June 2015.


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